Bonus time!

Well, I had an excellent holiday season I hope you all did too!

The reasons for this were many and I am a very lucky girl!

Firstly, I spend Christmas with my husband, our 13-month-old daughter 'Beanie' and all my family up in the North-East. My family all loved (or pretended to !) the knitted pressies I gave them and my Grandad even wore the socks I made him recently on Christmas Day to show them off to the rest of the family!

You will think that now, after knitting non-stop all month, I would want a rest from knitting but no, I have managed to keep going. I made Beanie a Golden Compass Hat , thanks to Froggie Meanie's top pattern and I am currently working on (and nearly finished) a Trinity Stitch Hat for myself.

The second reason I am very lucky this that in December I received my first ever Swap Bot Secret Knitting Pal package from Saalis in Finland. She spoiled me with loads of gorgeous yarn - Knit Picks Wool of the Andes and some supersoft fluffy yarn which will make an excellent trim and loads of pink and sparkly goodies - a gorgeous rose soap, a fat quarter of top fabric and two really nice pens. All of this accompanied by a really sweet letter from Saalis.

Then, Suessstoff, the girl I sent my package to in Germany sent me a wonderful surprise which arrived just before I left to travel to my parents for Christmas. It contained a really cool edition of Rebecca (I need to learn German just so I can work on some of the patterns), a lovely heart which I think contains cedar chips (yummy), a hole punch for my Purl City Yarns labels and cards, some lovely magnets which will be great for attaching Beanie's artwork to our fridge and a lovely postcard from Suessstoff.

Thank you both so much!! It is definitely the season of giving!!

The third reason that I am such a lucky girl is that I scored loads of bargains in the sales. No, not clothes that I will never wear or other panic purchases but loads of yarn from Boyes in Billingham and John Lewis in the Trafford Centre. Both yarn departments were an oasis of calm amongst the madness of the sales!! In total I have acquired another five large bags of yarn, ooops!